, was first held in 2001 and launched the modern outdoor game phenomenon.|alt=Two teams of many hockey players stand at either end of a rink built on top of a football field as thousands of people look on from the stands. In the early
history of hockey, games were played outdoors on rivers, lakes, and other naturally occurring ice surfaces. The
first indoor game, held in 1875, was a novelty at the time, and after that the game moved inside. While the
first Olympic hockey tournament, held in 1920, was played indoors,
games at the first Winter Olympics in 1924 were the first of several such tournaments to be played outdoors. Games at the
World Championships were occasionally played outdoors, including the
final game in 1957 between the
Soviet Union and
Sweden at the
Lenin Stadium in
Moscow. The attendance at that game was approximately 55,000, a number that stood as a record for more than 40 years. In 1954, the
Detroit Red Wings of the
National Hockey League (NHL) played an exhibition game on an outdoor ice surface against the inmates of
Michigan's
Marquette Branch Prison. While the
New York Rangers and the
Los Angeles Kings played an
NHL exhibition game in 1991 outside
Caesars Palace in
Las Vegas, the modern trend for outdoor competition began in 2001. That year,
Michigan State University and the
University of Michigan played to a 3–3 tie in an outdoor game known as the
Cold War before 74,554 fans. The game was held at Michigan State's
Spartan Stadium, with the hockey rink set up in the middle of the football field. The NHL's first regular season outdoor game ensued: the
2003 Heritage Classic, hosted by the
Edmonton Oilers, who lost by a 4–3 score to the
Montreal Canadiens. Though the game was played in frigid temperatures that went as low as , it drew over 57,000 fans and was hailed as a success. The league followed it up in 2008 when it inaugurated the
NHL Winter Classic as an annual event to be held on New Year's Day. The
2008 NHL Winter Classic, held in
Buffalo, set an NHL attendance record of 71,217. In 2011, for the first time the NHL hosted two outdoor games, the
Winter Classic in
Pittsburgh, and the
Heritage Classic in
Calgary. Outdoor games have been held by many leagues around the world. The
Swiss league's
SCL Tigers hosted
SC Bern in an outdoor game to celebrate the 100th Tigers–Bern Derby in 2007. In 2009, Swedish clubs
Frölunda HC and
Färjestads BK played a game at
Ullevi. The game broke the former European league-game record for attendance at that time with a crowd of 31,144 (beaten in February 2011 when
Jokerit and
HIFK played in front of 36,644 spectators). The game also broke the Swedish record crowd of 23,192, set in the same stadium in 1962. The current world record for attendance at a hockey game was set in December 2010, in an
NCAA game between the same two teams that participated in the Cold War. In this game,
Michigan hosted
Michigan State in an event known as
The Big Chill at the Big House. The game had an announced attendance of 113,411 spectators, but
Guinness World Records certified the attendance as 104,173 based on tickets scanned. The record had previously been set at the opening game of the
2010 IIHF World Championship, in which the hosting
Germans defeated the
United States 2–1 before a then-record 77,803 fans. Although the game was held at
Veltins-Arena in
Gelsenkirchen, it was not technically an outdoor game, as the stadium's retractable roof was closed due to
International Ice Hockey Federation regulations. In 2010, Färjestad and Frölunda again played an outdoor game against each other, this time in
Karlstad. 15,274 spectators saw Färjestad win the game 5–2. ==Popularity==